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A Craftynail Year in Review

Since my Craftynail Blog has been alive and kickin’ for a year now I thought it would be fun to see what I’ve done in the last 365 days!

NAIL CARE TIPS

My nail health has really seen some improvement since I started blogging. I’m able to change my nail style more often since these nails have been growing like weeds! Did you ever notice that I have a NAIL TIPS page on the main menu of my blog? In case you’ve never seen it here’s my tips for growing out your nails. Look how long they were in this pic! ↓

CHANGE IS GOOD, RIGHT?

My nails have changed so much in the last year. I haven’t found my ‘signature shape’ yet….I keep changing my nail length and filing them differently as time passes. I noticed that most other bloggers have their own ‘look’ that I instantly recognize. I can do a google image search and instantly spot other bloggers hands like, “oh hey, there’s Sabrina’s nails” or “yup, that’s the Daily Varnish”. But I bet you can’t quickly pick a Craftynail manicure out of a lineup like that! I haven’t decided if this is something I want to correct, or if I should embrace the fact that I change my nail shape and length all the time. Afterall, I’ve always said CHANGE IS GOOD. So, I made a collage to show you how different my nails looked throughout the last year. Which style is your favorite? I always used to like square and long, but lately I’m enjoying my nails shorter and more round.↓

MY MOST POPULAR POSTS?

By a landslide, my most popular post is my OPI Nail Envy Review. That article has racked up 6,500 hits so far! The cool thing about my review is that I posted before and after pics… so you can really see the proof in the pudding!

Here are some other runner-ups in terms of page views. Some of them get a lot of referrals from pinterest. Especially my DIY nail soak…

MY FAVORITE POST?

My favorite manicure of mine is probably these rainbow gradient nails. They’re so bright and cheery and they make me feel young again!

Some of my other faves are what I like to call my UNDERSIDE MANIS since I just love painting underneath my nails! I also love my crafty posts that involve jewelry findings or beads. Here’s a sampling…

NAIL CHALLENGES

In July 2013 I organized a nail art challenge with Brijit from Brijit’s Digits and Jemma from Eeeek! Nail Polish! called Oh Mon Dieu! It’s the Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway. Yep, that’s a mouthful, and what a blast! So many people participated! 963 manicures were submitted for the challenge. And I know this because I just counted them all! (click here to see all the manis) I also made great friendships in the process. Brijit and Jemma and I are a good international team so we’re planning on having another world-wide Oh Mon Dieu Challenge again in 2014. You ready for some OH MON DIEU PART DEUX?

Here’s some of my manicures from the Oh Mon Dieu Challenge…

AND THEN?

Blogging has quickly become such a big part of my life, I don’t see me stopping anytime soon. In fact, I wish I started earlier! Here’s what I’ve got up my sleeve…

I’d love to do more Celebrity Copycat manis. So far I’ve only done two copy cats (Adele and Wizard of Oz), but I plan to do my third soon- Kelly Osbourne’s pointy heart nails just HAVE TO BE copycatted!

I’m currently hosting a monthly nail art challenge of sorts called NAIL ART IDEAS LINKUP (NAIL). I’m running this linkup with the help of Brijit and Eeeek and we plan to keep coming up with fresh nail art themes each month! Here’s the current info on NAIL if you’d like to submit your nail art.

I’d like to create more tutorials. My ghost nail art tutorial for halloween has been re-pinned more times than I can count. So I’m assuming people would love to see more tutorials. Safe assumption, right?

I’d also love to become more active on Instagram… but did you know that IG only lets you upload pics from an app? I upload my pics from a desktop pc, so unfortunately, IG isn’t really happening for me at the moment. Maybe someday soon I’ll have some techy device with apps. <sigh> I have a Nook, but there’s no IG apps on there that allow you to upload. Anyway…

Thank you for reading everyone! Please know that I love all of the comments and LIKES that I receive. Our nail blogging community is such a positive and supportive group of people- I’m thrilled to be a part of it! I look forward to another year of fun with all of you. Talk soon! You know I’ll be commenting on your blogs and scoping you out on bloglovin. I have a tendency to do that!

Loving this post! 😀 And I also cannot IG for the same reasons… 😀 Sort of sad, sort of not, I think. And… I love your pointy nails! But next is the shorter, rounder ones, they look so nice and user friendly 😀

squoval! I love the shape in the nude with pink french dotty tips one. Honestly, really long nails creep me out (and look highly useless). I love to look at nails that I think I could wear…aka are short enough to work with but long enough to be pretty. Also, RAINBOWS! And your under-nail designs are some of the most original stuff I’ve seen this year. 😀

This is a great post! I love all the things you’ve covered here. I love the under-mani designs, especially the rising sun one. I don’t think my nails will ever be long enough to do one myself, but I like seeing them on other people. I’m a shorter nail kind of gal, but hey, as long as the polish looks good! I feel you on the whole IG issue. I wish I had that platform to share on, but I don’t want a smart phone! Congrats on a year!!

I was just about to do the same when I reached a year, but I thought it would be a boring repeated post, BUT my idea wasn’t so bad seeing this, THIS WAS BRILLIANT and I am so happy to have followed you every single day since 🙂 <3<3<3 xxx big kiss!!!!

I have awful nails, they do not grow and are not pretty, so I enjoy seeing how the other half lives , lol, and love seeing all the nail styles that I never knew excisted !! I love your creativity and cannot believe how many really wonderful designs you come up with !!! Looking forward to year two and what you come up with next !!!

I love this post! I remember being totally floored when I saw your Arizona nails for the first time. And OMD was so fun! I can’t wait to see what you guys have planned for part deux. Here’s to many more awesome years to come! 😀

Such a great post, I missed some of those, so it was a great summary! I must say, I’m kinda in love with your pointies, they really suit you, and are quite different. And that dreamcatcher mani was incredible. Happy blogging for another 365 days! 🙂 Congrats on this project!

Congratulations on your one year! 😀 I know you dilemma with nail shapes – and every time I decide on a shape, I see someone else rocking an amazing look with another nail shape and I want to change mine! Anyway, I think both rounded and square suit your hands, & I look forward to more of your posts. 🙂

Congrats on your one year blogging anniversary. My 2 year is coming up and it’s like I just started yesterday–totally weird feeling. So as far as your nail shape and size, my favorite is in the upper right corner: squared but not too long. I think they look fab there but in all honesty, you have great nails no matter than the length and shape.